Summary

Our Score

9/10

User Score

Review Price free/subscription

I also must give a special mention to the remote control that ships with the 37PF9731D. Whereas many TVs are let down by either overcomplicated or just plain ugly remotes, the unit that accompanies this television is a triumph of simplicity and style. I guess it’s not that surprising that Philips can come up with a great remote considering its Pronto universal remotes are widely regarded as best of breed.

When it comes to sound this TV doesn’t disappoint either. Despite the fact that anyone who buys this set is likely to have a surround sound setup, Philips hasn’t skimped on the audio front. The speakers mounted below the screen give a very good account of themselves, both with high octane explosions and subtle background effects. The dialogue is always cleanly separated as well, never getting lost in the cacophony of effects and swelling musical scores.

There are two things that you can be sure of with Philips high end TVs – first, they will be very good, and second, they will be very expensive. There’s no getting away from the fact that the RRP of £2,499 is pretty steep, but after a quick look around the web I managed to find the 37PF9731D for as little as £1,812.89 inc VAT and delivery. With a street price of just over £1,800 the 37PF9731D looks like a bit of a bargain considering the feature set and image quality.

Verdict

The Philips 37PF9731D isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty damn close. The only real issue with this TV is the problem I encountered with the thin green line at the top of the screen, but I’m pretty sure that Philips will resolve this before production units ship. The lack of 1080p input support may seem like an issue for some potential buyers, but there will always be something just around the corner, no matter when you buy.

As it stands, the 37PF9731D is a simply stunning LCD TV that eclipses pretty much everything else I’ve seen to date. The image quality is superb with high definition sources, while even standard definition signals are handled with aplomb. The latter is particularly impressive considering that there is a lot of scaling going on when showing SD video on a 1080 line screen.

The 37PD9731D also has an impressively long feature list that puts many other high end TVs to shame, while its design, ergonomics and simplicity of use are second to none. Throw three-sided Ambilight into the equation and you’re left with a TV that oozes quality, features, style and innovation. Put simply, if I had the cash spare right now, this is the TV I’d want on my living room wall.